15-year-old Tanaya Wadkar from Sindhudurg, who is also a state-level shooter, shot the bull's eye by scoring 100 per cent in the SSC examinations. She aspires to become an IAS officer

Pune: A girl from Sindhudurg, who is also a state-level shooter, shot the bull’s eye by scoring 100 per cent in SSC.

Tanaya Wadkar

Tanaya Wadkar (15), a student of Kalsukar English School in Sawantwadi, scored 485 out of 500 and got an additional 15 marks for her sports activities. She had participated in 10-meters open sight shooting at the interschool and state-level competitions and had got a gold medal in one of the appearances.

While her father Ramchandra Wadkar is a head clerk with state transport department, her elder brother is pursuing a course in fine arts from B S Bandekar College Of Fine Art (Applied Art), which is affiliated to Mumbai-based Sir J. J. College of Architecture and her mother is a housewife. Her father reminisced that since childhood, she was a bright student but this score is unexpected.

“When my brother called me to give the news, I screamed so loud that my neighbours thought something went wrong at my house,” said Ramchandra, adding that he is planning to gift his daughter a rifle to help her continue the sport.

He also has planned to send Tanaya to Gun for Glory, an academy run by Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang in Pune to help hone her skills in shooting.

Tanaya thanked her friend for suggesting to take up shooting. “I took up the sport and reached the national level in six months.”

Asked how she handled academics and sports, she said, “I use to wake up early and study. Later, I would practise shooting for 2 hours and then go to my coaching class for tuitions in mathematics and science,” adding that shooting not only helped her get 100 per cent but also helped increase her concentration.

“I want to become an IAS officer. For now, I will opt for BSc and later pursue law,” wrapped up Tanaya.